Oakland: 80 and 880 and 580 Freeways
18" x 13.5"
The MacArthur
Maze refers to the freeway interchange located near the eastern end of the San
Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge in Oakland, California; it is the largest
freeway interchange in the world.
In 1989, the Loma
Prieta earthquake caused a double-decked section of the Maze to collapse,
crushing cars. The three miles of
replacement freeway cost $1.2 billion.
In 2007, a
speeding tanker truck carrying gasoline hit a guardrail and overturned on a
Maze connector. The driver walked away
with minor injuries. The intense heat from the subsequent fuel spill and fire
weakened the steel structure of the roadway above, collapsing it onto the lower
connector, which sank nine inches. A
state projection concluded that the connector collapse had cost $90
million. The company that owned the
tanker truck lost its license to transport gasoline.
